Winning one for No. 6

Eisenhower prevails for Jock Wormack, a car accident fatality

September 17, 2006|By Alan Sutton, Tribune staff reporter.

On a day when playing games just didn't seem very important, Eisenhower's football team thought otherwise.

The Cardinals had lost a teammate in a tragic auto accident on Thursday evening. Jock Wormack, 16, was on his way to a dinner in Orland Park with six other players when their car overturned and he was killed.

Less than 48 hours later, Eisenhower's players were on a sunny football field in Tinley Park. They were without No. 6, their starting fullback. But they had a reason to succeed.

"I just knew we had to win the game for one person," Eisenhower quarterback Rob Anderson said. "It was hard. We went through a lot of adversity, but we stuck together as a team for Jock."

The memory of their former teammate drove Eisenhower's players to a 21-14 overtime victory over Tinley Park in front of the few hundred Cardinals fans that made the trip.

In the middle of the crowded visitors bleachers was Jock Wormack's mother, Danielle Clark-Bailey. Anderson personally saw to it that she wouldn't be disappointed. He threw the winning touchdown pass.

Clark-Bailey and Anderson shared a special moment after the game. Wearing her son's red jersey, she hugged the senior and told him, "You did a good job." Asked how she felt about her son's former teammates, she said simply, "I love them. I lost one--but I felt I gained a whole team."

Just a few days ago, Wormack's mother wasn't even sure she would be at the game--originally scheduled for Friday night but postponed until 3 p.m. on Saturday.

"He asked me before the accident if I was going to the game," she said, recalling a conversation with Jock Wormack on Thursday. "I told him I don't know, it's so far."

But she could not miss this day.

"He was one of the toughest kids I knew," Anderson said of Wormack. "He had a great smile, he was a good kid.

"We knew this game meant more than anything to us. We got more excited, more pumped up than we ever got for any game."

Tinley Park officials held a brief pregame ceremony and a moment of silence in honor of Wormack.

"This is not about the records or wins or losses, but one person," said Anderson, whose twin brother Roy was on the receiving end of the winning pass to keep Eisenhower's season perfect at 4-0.

Eisenhower coach Mike Emanuelson recognized how important it was to hold things together.

"We spent so much time together, the coaching staff, the players," Emanuelson said. "It seems like 48 hours straight we're together as a team from 8 in the morning until 9 last night. And we've been together since 9 this morning. Now we can finally take a breath, I think."

But he admitted, "It was tense. Everyone felt the pressure not to let down Jock. That made it a real intense game, a real emotional game. I know everyone is pretty drained right now. I'm just glad this day is over."

Also at the game was former Eisenhower player Rasul "Rocky" Clark, who suffered a broken neck and spinal cord injury in a game six years ago. He is paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.

Clark's misfortune is one of many that have struck players and former players from the school in recent years.

"This is an unfortunate situation that his family had to experience," Clark said. "When I first heard, it was like, `This can't be real.'"

Ashley Jordan, a senior and one of the captains of Eisenhower's cheerleading squad, showed up early for the game. Like the other cheerleaders, she had the number 6 written on her cheek in memory of Wormack.

She was asked how she could do her job after such misfortune.

"We've just got to cheer the boys on like it was a regular game," Jordan said. "We've got to deal with this in the best way we possibly can."